All of us have an experience of a new beginning. And, you know, it’s a difficult one, isn’t it? Because sometimes this new beginning has been forced upon us and it’s extremely painful and hurtful and we feel somewhat lost. So what do we do with this whole new area with this new beginning? Well, I think we must sit back and realize that it is a very very long life and I can say that with some experience approaching 70 years old.
So with this belief and this understanding that it is a long life, then one has to anticipate that you will have these beginnings along the way. Some good and some bad but really it is up to you. It is up to me to decide whether I’m going to go positively forward or ultimately negatively forward. And someone said to me the other day, a bit of a wit, I thought. He said, you know, Leon, as long as you’re alive, as long as you live, good things can come your way.
Right? It kind of gave me a bit of solace in a sense because you think, gosh, life is hard. There is no question. It’s filled with a lot of pain and, of course, a lot of joy as well. It’s not always difficult, but I think when we stumble into real loss, real disaster, which we will, I think each of us will experience something like this along this great trek in life, then it is really up to me how I see this radically new beginning.
So what am I to do? Well, gosh, I think to a large extent, we must really analyze where we are right now. And if we’re feeling really sad or perhaps depressed, I think we need to talk with the self, don’t we? It is not advisable to stumble into alcohol or bad new relationships. And some people, god forbid, into drugs, you know, clinical or legal or otherwise.
You have to somehow find a way, hard to do, I know, find a way that you deal with the reality yourself. So the way I’m feeling right now is grim. It’s black. A black mood. As one of my British friends used to say, but I can get out of this black mood.
So then I need a shift in energy, don’t I? How am I gonna do this? Well, physical exercise is quite wonderful. Go for a walk. Get to the gym.
Really make yourself feel fresh again, so to speak. Now probably the old negativity, the old patterns are going to follow, aren’t they? You’re going to meet people from the past that remind you of the old, and they’re not going to be a part for sure of the new beginning. Perhaps an ex boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, ex business partner, God only knows. They’re not going with you.
But underlying all of this, you are now free from whatever was in the past. That curse of the past is over. In prison, many people don’t really shake the past. So when they leave prison, they associate with the past and they look up those old friends and they end up back in prison quite quickly. The recidivistic rates are very, very high once you’ve been in prison.
And it’s an unfortunate phenomenon because I don’t think prison is a good place for you to grow. Then you gotta ask yourself, what do I want? What do I want out of this new beginning, this new piece of life? Well, get the notebook out. Write your plans.
Talk to yourself. Very, very important. And, also, clarify what you no longer want. What caused you discomfort before? And whatever it was, you gotta get rid of it.
Maybe it’s through a relationship with someone, god forbid. Things like this. And underlying all of this, what is your mission in life? Where are you going? What have you been holding on to?
Perhaps you’ve not gone and found your mission yet and you stumble into gosh, you gotta start again. Gotta move again. Whatever it is. And, oh, I don’t know what to do. Yes, you do.
You really do because all truth lies within. It has to because there is no truth if you’re dead, if you’re not here. You are that self contained molecule that monad that Leibniz talked about and I think there’s some truth to this because you can feel the warmth of someone else’s body, but you can never possess them in that sense for sure not. And I would get myself to a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, some place that I feel spiritual, and I would look for the signs in the new beginning. Look for where we’re going and search for those moments of peace.
That’s why I go to a church on a weekly basis because life at 70 years old is a new beginning virtually every single day because you’ve been given another day of life. And then, of course, we end up very quickly realizing there is a slight gap here because I’m not part of the old and yet I am not yet part of the new. So this beginning has been a psychological sense. I’m like a baby. I have to find new parameters, new realities to occupy, and I need to remember that my soul is truly whispering to me because everything lies within.
So let us embrace reality. And if I have a negative mindset, find a way, gosh, to get rid of it. And there are good things in your life. Right? Remember this.
So hold on to those good things. Hold on tight. Get your sleep and take a chance on you. So ultimately, a new beginning can be very exciting, can’t it? Little story.
I worked in a television stereo, a television store. We sold stereos and various things along this nature, electronic things. And I was in my early twenties, and I was good at what I did. I was a good salesman. And the man who owned the business, I think I’ve mentioned this before, offered me a partnership.
And I would have been wealthy very, very quickly because business was booming at this time in British Columbia in the primary industries, in forestry, in our case, in our little town. Huge money was being made and spent on material possessions, consumer goods, television, stereos, houses, cars, you name it. So I would have been under 30 years old and rich, as they say. A millionaire, probably, given the times. But my mind would have been absolutely blank.
So now forty years later, there would have been lights on, nobody home. Great idiom. It means, ultimately, I would have had all these material things, but my mind would not have been thoughtful, I think, at all. I needed to go to school. I needed to go away.
I needed to see life. And I think we’re all like this with our new beginnings, aren’t we? We all need a bit of adventure. So take a chance on you. And no matter how you feel, wake up, get up, clean up, show up, never ever ever give up on you, especially when you’re new beginning.
And you know what they say, you know what they say, Critical thinking is necessary for a new beginning, and critical thinking is great. Truly great. You take care. God bless. This is to your new beginning. Take care. Bye bye.